


Little Miracles

by CmonCmon



Series: Raising Warriors [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Clone Mom and Clone Dad, F/M, Soft Wars, Star Wars AU - Soft Wars, Vode Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:28:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25852123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CmonCmon/pseuds/CmonCmon
Summary: Shaak feels the touch of the Force on Kamino
Relationships: Colt (Star Wars)/Shaak Ti
Series: Raising Warriors [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1835518
Comments: 45
Kudos: 336
Collections: Open Source Soft Wars





	Little Miracles

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Project0506](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Project0506/gifts), [Primarybufferpanel (ArwenLune)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune/gifts).



> Huge thank you to [PrimaryBufferPanel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune) and Jac (with a secret AO3) for their work on this oversized chapter!
> 
> Go read (or reread) Projie's [Soft Wars](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1683775).

The first brush of awareness came as Shaak walked along a crowded corridor with Colt and his command staff. 

The feeling was such a surprise, she caught his arm as she stumbled. There were too many minds in the space for her to pinpoint the source. She opened herself to the Force, trying to reach out.

“General?” Colt was holding her, his always unguarded thoughts racing through all the possible concerns for her. 

“I’m…” She squeezed his gauntleted hand because her mind was too busy to speak. Shaak could still just catch a quicksilver breath of it.  _ Find me. Find me. _ She cast back, hoping but not hopeful.

“Get her to medical.” Colt was all but growling to his troopers, who fell into formation around him to move through the crowd and protect her.

“No, I’m well.” She brought herself back to the moment, finding the gap at his wrist, just below the start of his vambrace with her fingers as a quick reassurance. “Colt, please, my rooms.”

“Sir.” He would do what she asked, but he worried. Colt worried far too often about her, and she didn’t need the Force to tell her so. 

“Discreetly, Colt. Please.” She firmed herself on her feet. It was the surprise, the sudden shock. “I need time to meditate.”

“Yes, sir.” He must have said whatever followed through his helmet comms, because Blitz, Havoc, and Hammer all drifted away like that had been the plan all along.

Colt said nothing until they reached her door. “Sir, is there anything--”

“Yes.” Shaak had only been waiting for this relative privacy to ask. “Come inside.”

There was a small choked noise in reply, but Shaak would assume it meant yes.

Her rooms, as far as the Jedi and the Republic could tell, were the most private space on Kamino not occupied by a Kaminoan. Shaak led Colt in and through her front room and beyond into what she actually considered her living quarters. Colt, unsurprisingly, lingered at the door to the room.

“Colt, please.”

She kept moving, deeper into the room, to another door, another corridor, and finally, out.

_ Outside. _

Shaak could finally breathe, finally focus. 

The rain was less driving than usual, mostly blocked by the curve of the structures around them. The ocean swayed below, restlessly churning. Colt’s hand came to rest so lightly on her shoulder.

“Sir.” It was plaintive. He pulled his helmet off and snapped it to his belt. “Sir, please, tell me… what to do. Tell me how I can help.”

“I felt another mind use the Force.” 

“An unexpected visitor?” His expression darkened. “A threat?”

“No, Colt… nothing like that.” She couldn’t help herself. Shaak reached up to brush her fingers against his cheek. This would be hard for him to hear, to believe. “One of your little brothers is special. We have to find him.”

The first reaction was shock. Hilariously blatant shock. Jaw dropped, eyes wide, breathless shock. He looked like he would protest, but he caught himself. Then the fear set in. “If they find him… if--” He shook his head. “Sir, how do I help you find him? What can we do once we do?”

“Can you find out the squads we passed in the hall? If he reaches out again…” It was so unlikely, but the Force worked in mysterious ways. “If we can find him, I can try to help.”

Help him control his powers. Help him keep his secrets. But that help could draw more attention. After all, Shaak might spend time with the cadets, but she’d never taken a particular interest in one. 

To do nothing would not end well. The mind that had touched hers had been stronger than just a shapeless bit of energy. It was the sort of Force that a Jedi youngling would have. 

She could not begin to imagine the implications. The dangers that would pose to the cadet. The risk of having that kind of ability at the hands of the Kaminoans to exploit a Force-sensitive. The risk that the Kaminoans would never want that sort of ability to be known. Could she even petition to have the cadet brought to the Temple? 

_ No, this was speculation. _ She had come here to avoid just that. To find her balance.

“I need to meditate, but your brothers could start to search. Quietly.” She was holding on to her Commander. The hand on his cheek had fallen to his shoulder, her other hand had caught his in her own. Shaak released her hold on him, stepping back. “We must find him.”

“We will, sir.” Colt had recovered enough to answer, to look sure when she was anything but.

Shaak nodded. She wanted that to be true. “I will comm you if I learn more.”

“Yes, sir.” He reached out this time, pressing one hand to her shoulder. To reassure  _ her _ , even when he had his brothers’ well-being to worry about.

Shaak didn’t know how she could have done all this without him at her side.

*

The Force welcomed her. It rushed through on the wind and wrapped around her from the waves. Shaak cleared her mind, sunk deeper into its embrace. 

The Force would guide her. 

The energies all around her came alive, the world, the beings. She let go of her urge to search for him. If he was to be found, it would be the will of the Force.

As much as the Force was happy to have her, it seemed to have no interest in rewarding her efforts.

*

Shaak knows the moment Colt returns to her rooms.

She had told him the truth when she said she shielded herself from his feelings in the Force, blocked his projections. But she had been so deep in her meditation that his mind was shouting. 

“Colt.” She was still folded into the narrow access hatch, still searching, but he was too loud to ignore. His thoughts were tumbling rushes of icy dread and hot riotous conflict. The need to protect, to help, struggled to hold back the tides, channel them into purpose and order.

“Sir.” 

Just the one word, but she could feel the pinprick of unease thread through the worry.

“Sir.” He moved, restless, wanting to reach out, but holding himself back. He’d almost never initiated contact. She’d always done it, in hopes of reassuring, comforting. “You… Sir, I don’t know anything about what you’re doing…” He shifted again. She was bringing herself back slowly. “Sir, you’ve been out here a long time.”

Finally, Shaak opened her eyes. Her robes were unpleasantly damp, the sky a different shade of murky grey.

“Sir, please.” Colt crouched down beside her, almost too bulky to fit on the narrow platform alongside her. “Come inside. We’ve been looking. I can report all of our progress. We will find him, but… this can’t be good for you.”

Shaak patted his hand, realizing it was bare. In fact, he wasn’t in his armor at all. He was stripped down to the clothing he wore for sparring.

“Sir, you’re like ice. Please.” She was a bit cold, now that he mentioned it. Stiff, as well. Shaak shifted to stand, and Colt snapped to his feet holding out his arms for her. She couldn’t have guessed why, but as she unfolded herself, her body protested.

“I am well enough, Colt.” He worried too much about her. She was his General. It was up to her to worry about him.

“You’ve been out here all night,” he scolded, like she was still a padawan. “You’re soaked through, ice cold, and you haven’t eaten in stars only know how long.”

“All night?” She managed her way to her feet. “It’s hardly dusk.”

“Dawn, General. Not dusk.” He brought himself around her, protective arms and a block for the wind, which had seemed to pick up. 

She had gone very deep into her meditation. “They look similar on this planet.”

“Sir.” He fussed her out of her damp robe, well, wet robe, to be completely honest. “I brought a tray from the mess. The men were concerned when you skipped late meal, and then this morning…”

“I’m sorry to worry you, Colt.” Shaak realized the slip the moment it was out of her mouth. Colt might say ‘the men’ when he meant himself, but it wasn’t for her to acknowledge that. “Please tell the men I am fine when you return to them.”

“I will, sir.” He hovered around her for a moment, and Shaak wasn’t sure what to do next. She was only starting to feel the cold, and her tunic was almost as wet as her robe had been.

Colt was not so unsure. He pulled a blanket off the end of her couch and wrapped it around her. “I’ll tell you what we’ve learned while you eat, sir.”

She was very certain he tacked on the ‘sir’ so he wouldn’t entirely be fussing at her like a mother nexu. Shaak took her seat at the small table where he’d set two trays. She wondered how he’d gotten her door open with his hands full, but it was not the moment to ask.

“I did not find him in the Force.” She didn’t mean for it to sound like an apology, but it did. “Please tell me you had better success?”

Colt slid a cup of tea closer across her tray. “Not success.” He looked worn. His sharp cheekbones sharper than usual, the creases around his eyes deeper. “But we did slice the security footage. Depending on the eh, well, the active radius of…,” he halted to rub at the back of his neck. “We don’t know how this works. Eight squads of first cycle cadets and three squads of second cycle cadets were in the hall with us. Another seven squads were in rooms adjacent to the corridor, if you can…whatever you can do, through walls.”

“Sense them.” Shaak sipped at her tea. “That is how we would locate one another through the Force.”

“The Force,” Colt repeated, looking at the untouched plate in front of him. “There is a vod’ika with the Force out there.” His voice was soft, awed.

“With the number of your brothers, there have likely been others. Maybe not as strong, but with a bit of it.” Shaak tried to imagine what it would be like for one of his brothers. So many other energies in such tight spaces, such pressure to conform. “This one was as strong as a youngling in the Temple. We have to find a way to get him there.”

“A vod. A clone. In a Jedi Temple.” He shook his head. “Who would allow that? We aren’t…” Colt lifted his face. His expression was pained. “That’s not… We can’t be that. We’re soldiers, but the Generals are Jedi. To the Republic, we’re only property.”

She wanted to tell him that wasn’t true, that any Jedi would value life in every form, regardless of how it was created, that his brothers had as much right to the Force as every other being. 

Shaak believed that with every beat of her heart. But she knew others did not feel the same.

She covered his hand with her own. “You and your brothers are not property to me. And you never were.”

“Sir.” The emotion caught him. The breath he drew was uneven, a shine in his warm, golden eyes. 

She shook her head.

“Shaak,” he tried again with an unsteady laugh. “Would they really accept him? Raise him? Train him? Where his brothers could visit, spend time with him?”

“They will.” She knew she couldn’t promise, but she would anyway. The Force would not allow the Jedi to turn the youngling away. “We will find him, and we will find a way.”

*

If the Kaminoans noticed the amount of time Shaak spent walking the facilities, they never commented. That was hardly a surprise. They likely assumed everything she did on Kamino was at the behest of the Chancellor, or the Republic, or the Jedi council.

In reality, her only duties were the same she had always owed to the council and her mission to protect the cadets on Kamino. As far as she was concerned, this current imperative fit both duties.

Colt had presented her with a list of cadet squads, and she had wandered through. Not systematically. It would have been too suspicious, too obvious. She visited them in no particular order, at no specific time. The cadet would have a difficult enough time fitting in with his brothers, Shaak wouldn’t risk drawing any undue attention to him. 

There wasn’t much to worry about. She kept herself open to the Force as she walked the halls, seeking that spark-flare connection of another mind, but it never came. 

By the third day of wandering by classrooms, target ranges, and training labs, Shaak wondered how she could still be missing him. Colt and his brothers were not the sort to miss a target. She would doubt herself before she doubted them, but Shaak knew what she’d felt.

She had looked everywhere Colt had suggested, and found nothing. She had taken to walking in the evenings, when all the youngest vode were in their bunks for quiet hours, preparing for lights out. It allowed her to touch as many of their energies as she needed without distracting from their studies. But, as usual, there was no response to her call in the Force. Her walk turned aimless, just movement for the sake of movement. It was a light sort of meditation, open to the Force, but just skimming the surface as she went.

Her unthinking steps led her to the dock. They often did. Like there might be a ship arriving with a friend for an unscheduled visit. Shaak didn’t like to think of herself as lonely, but there were times she felt like the only Jedi left in the universe. Colt and his men made her feel less isolated as a person, but most of her life had been spent with another Jedi in reach.

And maybe, if she was honest with her own feelings, the thought of finding a Force-sensitive youngling here, a youngling that would mean so much the  _ vode _ meant something more to her than doing her part as a Jedi to bring in a child who belonged in the Temple. Some of it, she must accept, was selfishness in a place where selfishness didn’t belong.

Shaak was undecided. She could go find Colt and tell him he and his men needed to use their own resources to find the cadet. Or, she could go back to her spot outside the maintenance hatch and try to meditate again with the hope that her realizations would allow for clarity.

Until she heard faint snoring.

It was barely louder than the sheets of rain pouring over the exposed edge of the landing bay, but she followed it around the stack of supply crates. A small cadet slept on top of one crate, blocked from sight by a taller stack, under what looked like a towel from the showers.

As if he felt her attention, the cadet opened his eyes to look up at her. “You’re the one I hear?”

He smiled and reached out to her. Shaak could do nothing but take him in her arms. He was in the first cycle, not much more than hip high. “You heard me call for you?”

He nodded. “Didn’t want anyone to know. My brother told me it’d get me in trouble if I listened to what I hear in my head.” He sucked on his lower lip. “We’re not supposed to hear things in our heads.”

“It can be difficult to be different from the ones around you.” She nestled him on to her hip and his arms wrapped around her. The Force glowed in approval. “You sleep out here?”

“Too loud with my brothers. Their heads are always nosy.” He buried his face in her shoulder. “I listen to the rain and sleep here.”

“Of course.” She shifted her hold on him for one moment to ping Colt over comms. “Would you like it if I found a way to help you make the voices go quiet when you don’t want to hear them?”

“You can do that?” He flashed a big smile, more awake, showing a gap where a front tooth had been. 

“I can.” Shaak had been a teacher many times in her life. Master to padawans a few times. She couldn’t help but want to do it again. “And I can show you how.”

“You’re quiet.” He gave her that considering frown Colt always seemed to make. “You’re like the ocean. Like me.”

“Yes.” Shaak carried him towards her rooms. “I am like you.”

*

Colt must have understood her comm. Or maybe the Force guided him. He let himself into her rooms without knocking and found her on the couch with the cadet half-asleep in her arms.

“Am I in trouble?” The little brother looked up at him with half-opened eyes.

“No, Cadet. I think the General will vouch for you.” Colt was fighting back a smile, but Shaak could see the flush of pleasure on her Commander’s cheeks. He shifted his gaze to her for a moment and all Shaak could do was nod. This was who they had been looking for. “Designation, cadet?”

“Name’s Ottoo.” He yawned, shifting the couch’s throw blanket around himself to get more comfortable. “CT-8702”

“Oh-two.” Shaak was charmed. She’d never asked Colt how he’d gotten his name.

“We need to get you back to your bunk, Ottoo, before someone notices.” Colt didn’t look much more interested in waking up his sleepy little brother than Shaak was, but he was right. The cadet couldn’t spend the night in her rooms.

“You have learned enough to quiet your mind and sleep in your bunk with your brothers.” Shaak stroked his hair. It shouldn’t have surprised her to find he was a quick study like his brothers.

“Wanna stay here.” Ottoo grumbled. 

Colt couldn’t suppress that grin. “I’d feel the same way, but you have to go back.”

Shaak stood and shifted the warm, boneless weight of Ottoo into Colt’s arms, checking over once that he was still comfortably arranged. She shared one look with Colt over the sleeping dark head. “We found him, Colt. We’ll figure out the rest.”

“I know we well, sir.” His voice was thick with emotion when he said it, and Shaak didn’t need the Force to know how much he believed it.

**Author's Note:**

> Extra shout out to PrimaryBufferPanel who named and numbered Ottoo with barely a moment's thought!
> 
> Author's note: my home internet is a jerk right now, so there might be some extra days between fics, in case you are on the edge of your seat. 
> 
> Fair warning, next fic is the Battle of Kamino. Kot *tap* *tap*


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